Life in New York
by Madame of Writing
Summary: Arnold was now a 22 years old journalist looking for his perfect columnist. He ran by Helga, a girl with her dreams of being the best writer in New York. There were sparks for them, everybody knew, but not themselves. 90% Alternate Universe
1. Chapter 1

_I'm on fire!_

_I have so many ideas at once that I am so sick of having them! This will be my first HA series and I am hoping that you guys will like this piece as much as... I do! Also, I am on my one week break from school and I will write as much as I can, update as fast as possible and make my story as fascinating as it can be! Also, this is kind of Alternate Universe, that means no FTi, no Jungle Movie, no San Lorenzo, might be completely different from the original storyline of HA, but it will have some of its basic info. Enough of me chitty chatty, I will let you guys read it right now!_

**Disclaimer: **_Nope, never going to own it!_

Warning: Almost Alternate Universe, 90% different from the original storyline of HA!

_**Life in New York**_

"Arnold! The Boss is calling you!" A guy with glasses called out to a certain blonde editor that was sinking himself in a pile of newspaper. The lad picked his head up and looked over to his partner, who was pointing his thumb at the room in the corner, which was labeled, '_Director Alexa Smith_'. The one who was called Arnold, picked up his pencil and hung it on his ear, he fixed his hat and left his work space.

Arnold swallowed and walked calmly over his boss' office. His blonde hair went spikier than normal and his hat was falling out of place. His walking was almost in the same beat as some of the typing noises that were filling the room, his hands clasped together and his back was shaking. He arrived at the office and entered the bright room. His boss was sitting cross-legged and facing the big window wall that showed the city of Manhattan.

He swallowed again and spoke up. "You were calling me, Ms. Alexa?"

Alexa turned to his side and glared at him with vicious eyes. Her green eyes were looking almost murderous toward him, her red hair was all puffed up and looked almost like it was powered by a cat fierceness. She intertwined her hands and looked at the magazine on her desk.

"Do you know why I called you in here, Arnold Shortman?" She said, as the same time, reading the magazine.

"No, ma'am." Arnold's voice was shaking and at a point where it almost fell out of his throat, he played with his fingers and hands, trying to gather up his courage and answered the following questions by his boss.

"I'm certain that you don't." She stood up from her seat. "Arnold, our magazine is at the second place of one of New York's most favorite magazine line. Our headlines were just behind Jamie McDougal, who is not a coincidence, my _lawful _cousin from my Mother side."

"And of course, she used to be on second place with me. Until she somehow got on the first place and kicked Lucas Kingfield's _New York on Sundays_ down to fourth place." Alexa sighed and put her hands gently on the window glass. "She had proved us that she was not an ordinary nemesis." Alexa clenched her hand into a fist and cursed silently. She heaved a sigh again and turned around to face Arnold, who was playing around with his hat that he took down from his head. She offered him a seat and let him had a cup of her coffee. They both took a sip and smiled happily with the aroma of the bitter and sweet made by coffee, Arnold wiped his mouth with his sleeve and set the cup down on the small white plate.

"I'm pretty positive that you are single, no?" Alexa smirked and asked her editor, who had some light pink tint on his cheeks. He smiled shyly and rubbed his neck.

"Well... I'm quite busy with my editing job and I don't go around in parties or other places a lot. I'll find one if I have any chances."

An idea just flashed in Alexa's mind clockwork. She put down her coffee mug and took out some paper work of her company. After a moment of searching, she handed Arnold a thin folder. "Here, you just got a promotion."

"What?" Arnold widened his eyes and took the folder from her hand.

Journalist, it said.

"You are now a journalist, your first mission is to go out into the city and find for me a columnist for my magazine. I will replace you with a new editor."

Arnold's mouth was hanging slightly and no words were coming out of his mouth. Finally! His hard work had finally paid out, he got his dream promotion and got rid of the editing job that he somewhat despised so much. He shook hand with Alexa, said his thank you and left the room gleefully.

When he came out, he saw a black cop, who was his best friend, greeted him. "Hey man! I got my lunch break and came here right away!"

Arnold muttered under his breath and confused his friend. "What man? Are you okay Arnold?"

"I got the promotion Gerald! I got my promotion as a journalist!" Arnold shook Gerald's arms and squeezed him into his arms.

Gerald pulled Arnold away and then hugged back, patted his back happily. "Congratulation man! I knew you could do it! What's your first mission?"

"To find the perfect columnist."

_**See you in the next Chapter!**_

_Thank you for reading and please mind my mistakes!_


	2. Chapter 2

_OMG._

_Thank you ever so much for reviewing, favoring, alerting my story! It seems like some people accept the change in HA for a while! While writing this, I never think of the summary at all, that is why, I'm asking you guys to give me what you think is good for this story's summary, since I suck at it. Also, I don't mind you guys not reviewing, since I all know you people are lazy, it's okay, me too. I am so on fire right now, writing just makes me feel... peaceful, and of course some other feelings that are the opposite of peaceful, since I really want to improve my writing in many many different ways. Okay! Enough me blabbering around and making you guys waiting for the chapter. See you at the end! Constructive criticism is welcome! No flaming!_

**Disclaimer: **_Forever alone... Me no owny._

**Warning: **_90% Alternate Universe, language, OOC and many more things._

_**Life in New York**_

"Arnold, Arnold, Arnold... You are so naïve, man!" Gerald told his best friend, Arnold, who was waiting in line for his Starbucks coffee. Arnold asked his best friend to go out to the city with him for a trip and while that, looked for the perfect columnist. His promotion was driving him mad happy, but Arnold kept his calm and saved it for later at home, when he will be alone.

"Thank you, here are your tips, have a nice day." Arnold smiled at the barista and took his coffee, then he turned over to Gerald, who was staring at him, unamused. "I just need to find the perfect columnist and be that person's personal assistant, okay? I don't need a girlfriend now, Gerald."

"That is why you're naïve Arnold, a lot of your co-workers had their eyes on you man! You! 6 billion people in this world and you just don't give a fuck to a girl that might make your heart melts." Gerald looked back to the barista, she was looking at Arnold's direction with love eyes, smiled happily and blushed shades of light pink. Gerald pointed at the girl and yanked Arnold out of the store. "See that? That barista was looking at you! She clearly wants you to come back, buy coffee and tip her."

Arnold peeked over Gerald's tall shoulder and stole a glance at the girl behind the counter, she was serving the guests with the happiest smile. For some reason, Arnold could feel as if she was bathed in pure happiness.

"She looked happy serving the guests, what's wrong with that?" Arnold walked away from the store and down the street, Gerald followed him and kept on talking to him about the girlfriend problem.

Gerald had found himself a prize, her name stated Phoebe Heyerdahl, soon-to-be Phoebe Johanssen, in Gerald's mind. They met while Gerald was chasing the thief at night, the thief was randomly grabbing some person that was nearby to make Gerald backed away from him, the unlucky, or should I say, lucky, person was Phoebe. Gerald tried to save Phoebe, he did, but the thief escaped. Gerald looked at Phoebe for the first time and felt as if they were meant to be, at first, Phoebe found Gerald a little bit...

"Weird, because I, well, followed her all the time. I thought that we were meant to be man! She was so cute, so adorable, her long black hair, her blue glasses, her small and short body. Arnold, she was perfect for me, man."

Arnold nodded and smiled at Gerald. He secretly wished that he could meet someone that gave him that feeling, like they were destined to be together, no matter what, Arnold was hopeless and single. Despite the fact that a lot of girls had their eyes on Arnold, he didn't care about any of them, maybe it weren't meant to be, meant to be for them, but not for him. He just felt this need for someone different, a girl that will not try to put herself in his mind, but she will always stay in there.

Gerald thought that his kind of girl was a bit weird, Arnold wanted a girl that whenever she was in danger, he would sense it; whenever she approached him, he would feel something, unnoticeable, but slowly bloom into something like fireworks; whenever she screamed his name, he would hear it right away. Arnold once thought that this kind of girl never exist, but there were 6 billion people in the world, maybe she wasn't ready to come out to him yet.

_I will get the girl I want someday, I'll let time for her to get ready for me._ Thought Arnold. New York was one of the hot spot for dating, and Arnold was living there, for as long as he remembered. He was 22 now, he needed a girlfriend, or else he always get this feeling of being left out of his social life; all his friends were taken, including the gay ones.

Being an editor in his boss' famous magazine line, _Style_, was considered one of his biggest break. His boss was Alexa Smith, the director of _Style _and one of his best classmate from Middle School, she disappeared in High School and lost all contacts with her friends, including Arnold. Alexa was smart, quiet and shy when she was in Middle School, people had been told that she moved a lot, due to her Father's poorness. Arnold got to meet her again while attending College, and now, after dropping out of College, Arnold worked for her.

Arnold took his last sip of the espresso and dunked it in the recycle bin nearby, he sighed and rubbed his hand together, it was somewhere in the middle of September, the weather was turning cold and Arnold didn't like that. Right then, Gerald's talking ended his train of thoughts.

"Arnold! That's Phoebe! C'mon, I've gotta introduce you to her!" Gerald yanked Arnold into a fast food store. Arnold felt the warmness and scents of food hit him in the face, he smiled happily and ignored Gerald, who was pulling him down onto a table, Arnold liked the smell of fast food and warm heat. He suddenly sat down next to Gerald and listened to the sound of his voice.

"Hey Phoebe." Gerald said happily, looking at the woman on the opposite side with love eyes. "Good afternoon Gerald. What are you doing here?" Phoebe asked Gerald and then smiled happily at the sight of him.

"Oh, just chillin' with my best friend here. This is Arnold, he's the guy that I told you about." Gerald pointed over at Arnold, who smiled and shook hand with Phoebe.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Arnold, Gerald told me so much about you! You're working at _Style_, such an honor!" Phoebe shook his hand eagerly, Arnold laughed at her reaction and greeted back.

"I was just an editor, you don't have to be this polite toward me, and thank you." Arnold smiled kindly and kept rubbing his hand together. "I hate it when winter comes." He cursed.

"Oh, that's just perfect! Me and my friend were having a shopping day, her boyfriend just broke up with her, and she got some gloves for men! Maybe you could borrow some before she gave them to her dad." Phoebe offered Arnold.

Gerald smiled at her and took her hand into his. "Phoebe, you are so kind. I love you so much."

Phoebe blushed due to Gerald's words and she mumbled back those three words, then they left Arnold's existence in their minds and flirted to each other, not caring about Arnold, or the woman who was approaching the table. A blonde woman was holding a tray full of food and sat down next to Phoebe, she looked up at Arnold and smiled at him.

"Why, hello." She spoke up.

"Hi." He replied back and looked at the girl. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, she was wearing a pink stripes sweater and a pair of jeans, her facial expression showed Arnold that she was in a somewhat sad mood. Her dark blue eyes looking dark with bags under them, Arnold assumed that she had a monobrow, which was slightly squinted, and her smile she showed him were kind of forced.

The woman sighed and handed Phoebe her chocolate shake. "Your order Pheebs."

"Thank you Helga." Phoebe pulled her hand slowly away from Gerald's and took her drink, Gerald looked at the woman, who was addressed as Helga, and frowned slightly.

"And you are?" Gerald asked.

Helga looked over at Gerald with half-lidded eyes, he felt like she was insulting him with her eyes. Phoebe put her drink down and put her left hand on Helga's shoulder. "Arnold, Gerald. Meet Helga G Pataki, the soon-to-be most popular novelist in New York."

The guys looked at Helga and studied her body, she looked like an average New Yorker, they would never have guessed that she would be a novelist, though. Especially Arnold, he felt something for her, something very strange. It were like sparks, somewhat tingling inside his body, like some kind of insects were crawling up inside his organs. He suddenly felt warm inside when Helga looked at him and smiled.

"Hello, I am Arnold P Shortman, a journalist for _Style._" He flashed a goofy smile at Helga, who chuckled at his expression and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, uh... Football head." Helga laughed and covered her mouth, Arnold blushed at the silly nickname and yanked his hand away from her.

"I suppose you think that was very funny." Arnold frowned, he was still blushing lightly. Helga laughed a bit more and wiped some tears out of the corner of her eye, she started to smile brightly and squealed a bit.

"Thank you so much for that laugh, I haven't laugh for so long." Helga smiled brightly and shook her hand with Arnold again. He then felt happy inside, and quite bit confused about what she was talking about.

Helga stood up and grabbed Arnold's hand, she then turned around the flirting couple by the window. "Hey Tall Hair, I'll be borrowing him, okay?"

"Sure, just leave me and cutie here alone."

Helga smiled and looked over at Arnold, signaling him with her eyes that they would go outside the store. Arnold stood up and said his goodbye to Gerald, then left the place with Helga pulling his hand, she grabbed her purple jacket along the way. He, once again, felt the coldness on his skin, he shivered and cursed under his breath.

She chuckled at the blonde man and squeezed his hand tight, making him looked up at her. Her cheeks and nose were connected with the color of pink, she sniffed and rubbed her nose like a cat. She, too, shivered and made him follow her. Arnold was puzzled by her actions, where was she taking him? Was she up to something bad? Was she taking me to a strange place and forcing me to have sex with her and giving her money? Maybe not that one, but it was possible, after all, they were living in New York!

But he didn't care moments later, he somehow just wanted to ask this woman questions and grabbed the chance to know her better. Her pink attire made her stood out more than anyone around him, people in business suits and black clothes, she looked kind of childish wearing those clothes and walked around the city with him.

She turned at a corner and pulled him into what seemed to be an apartment building.

"Hey Jacob." She waved at a guy at the counter, who Arnold thought was gay, because he was holding his face when Arnold walked pass him. Helga ignored the elevator and continued to pull him upstairs. Arnold noticed that many people greeted her when they were going up. When they arrived at the third floor, Helga walked around and looked like she was looking for a room. She stopped at the one entitled 205, she backed her right leg and gave the door a hard kick. Then she fled with Arnold, laughing maniacally; for Arnold, she looked like she was pretty satisfied with the kicking.

People seemed to know Helga very well, she must be friendly, except for that unlucky guy in the room 205. She finally stopped at the sixth floor, room 608, Helga breathed heavily and turned around to take a look at Arnold, who was bending down on the floor, holding his stomach.

Helga gave Arnold a slap on the back. "Stop being such a weakling! There were only six floors!" And she laughed at Arnold.

"I haven't been running since high school, do you expect me to run that fast?" He spatted at Helga, who just kept laughing at the guy's expression. Helga opened the door to her apartment and pulled Arnold in.

She hung her jacket up the pink clothes hanger, then she kicked her shoes off. Arnold, on the other hand, took of his sneakers and put them neatly at the corner and entered the room. He took a good look around it, there were boxes everywhere, the only furniture he saw was the clothes hanger, a small TV and a purple mattress in the living room.

"Sorry that my home is so messy, I just moved out from _that jerk_'s house." She said. "Do you want to drink anything? I've got tap water, some coffee, some tea and milk."

"No thanks, I just want to sit down." Arnold walked into the mattress room.

"Just sit on that mattress, it's kind of a mess, but it is super comfy, I assure you." Helga came back with a cup of hot chocolate in her hand, she took a sip and plopped down next to Arnold. She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

They sat there quietly and watched some romance movie on HBO, Arnold was somewhat disturbed by the clichéness in the movie, but he didn't want to change the channel because he assumed that Helga liked watching it. But it was the total opposite, Helga was practically barfing inside her brain because of the mushiness in the movie. So, neither of them said anything.

Until Helga broke her patience.

"You like watching this crap?" She turned around and asked Arnold.

"No, I thought you liked it so I didn't want to change the channel."

"Do I look like someone who would enjoy a cheesy romance movie for you?" Helga raised her eyebrow. Arnold took a look at Helga, who changed her sweater into a light pink t-shirt with a typography that said: "I love you mom."

"Well -"

"That was a rhetorical question football head! You don't need to answer that!" Helga laughed at him and punched his shoulder, making him pouted for a moment and laughed back at her. She looked over at him and smiled. "I thought you didn't know how to laugh football head."

"Huh?" He looked confuse.

"I noticed that moments ago, when you first saw me, all you ever did was... looking and frowning at my sight. You made me sad Arnoldo." Helga faked a frown and lied down on her knees. Arnold looked over at the woman and smiled to himself, this feeling again, it was sparkling inside and stirring his heart up. He could've been hungry, who knew.

Helga stood up and walked into, what seemed to be, another room, she came back with a pink journal and a pencil, she sat down next to Arnold and handed him the book, then she smiled again.

"What's this?" Arnold asked Helga, who put her pencil on her ear.

"It's my journal, I wrote some of my ideas in there and thought that they might be good for my book. If I ever publish them, that is." She said boringly. Her talent in literature was never considered by her Father or Mother; for they only had their eyes on her sister, who quit her talent of music to become a teacher instead. "Mom and Dad never agreed to let me study in a literature school, so I always hid my journal and wrote down ideas instead. Or else I would have been a famous author already."

She sighed and lied down on a pillow, studying the ceiling and wondering about her future. "I'm 20 and I don't even go to college, I have to live alone here."

"You're 20?" Arnold widened his eyes and stared at Helga, who stared back at him angrily.

"Doi! How much older do you want me to look like? Your mom?" She pouted and sat up.

_For some reason... She looked rather cute with that face, wait, what am I thinking? _Arnold thought, smiled at the blonde woman. Then he started laughing.

"I didn't bring someone on drugs home, did I?" Helga laughed along and poked Arnold.

"You didn't, Helga. I was just feeling like laughing." He responded, making the woman wanted to tease him. They talked for a while and not noticing that the time was passing. When Helga was talking about some of her personal problems in her past, and Arnold just kept having this weird feeling inside of him. The feeling was unnoticeable, but it felt good inside when he noticed its presence.

Same for Helga, she had this feeling that she couldn't put her finger on it, but it felt good, it felt peaceful, and loved.

"You really replaced my therapist Arnold." Helga said quietly.

"You have a therapist?" His tone was surprised and high. He didn't know much about therapy or psychology, but having a therapist must meant something rather serious. Arnold was worried about her, even though he just met her for several hours or less.

"Yup. I met her every Saturdays ever since I was 13, the age of horror." She sighed. "Dr. Bliss was like my second mother, after the first one died. The damned woman was so addicted to alcohol, she called dad Vodka. One of the problems I've had since teenage."

"And then my dad, talk about a pain in the ass! He always, always wanted things to go his way, he craved perfection I'm telling ya. He wanted me to be like my sister, Olga, it is always about _her_. She married a rich guy, had a perfect talent in arts and music, she was beautiful, talented. She. Was. Perfect." She stopped and took a deep breath. "And I hate that."

"Why would you hate your own sister?"

"I don't know the damn reason why did mom and dad made me when they had her. Dad called me by her name! Most of the time! They never smiled when I got home from school! And when I tried to escape from home with my boyfriend, they didn't even care when I got home because I was so damn worried about them!"

"What?"

"I was drunk, don't ask. Anyways, I tried to leave afterward, but then, I would think about the consequences and I didn't had the guts to leave home, again." Helga finished, she sighed and hugged her blanket.

"I am so sleepy..." She yawned and closed her eyes, she was in deep sleep moments later. Arnold was still there and he looked at her for a few more hours, thoughts running through his mind like trains and he wanted her to be his columnist.

He lied down on her mattress and looked over at her side, she was snoozing lightly. Helga didn't bothered to let loose her ponytail, her shirt was slightly rolled up to her bellybutton. Arnold covered her body. He smiled and played with her hair; Helga was a deep sleeper, she didn't even woke up when Arnold pinched her nose.

Unknowingly, he fell asleep next to her and the night was well spent for both of them.

_**To be Continued**_

_Thanks for reading, mind my mistakes and I'll see you later!_


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